Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Kitchen Tip: Removing Apple Wax!

While we carefully wash all our fruits & veggies, apples have a food-grade wax covering the outside of the skin that doesn’t wash off easily.

Since we love to eat apples with the peel on them, and we love tea made from the peels, it was high time to find a way to really clean that wax off the apples.

5 Easy Steps to Remove Apple Wax

1) Fill your sink with about 4 inches of lukewarm water.

2) Add 1 T lemon juice & 1 T baking soda to the water; swirl around.

3) Place your apples in the water.

4) Using a fruit/veggie brush, brush the outside of the apples. Then, watch to see how gross your water becomes…

5) Rinse the apples & pat them dry.

Now, admire the difference!

Notes: If you still notice wax when you are finished, it’s likely because the apples didn’t get scrubbed with the brush all the way around. I noticed this at first on some of my apples, but a second scrub and the wax was gone.

Hi SnoWhite...i tried to use your tip to remove wax from apples it didnt work. I followed same instructions. Is there any idea how long we need to keep in the solution?? because i put the apples in the solution for 2 mins almost while scrubbing with scrubcloth...after scrubbing it looked good i almost felt wax is gone...but then to test it i used knife to scrap over the apple and i scrapped alot of wax ....please advice if there is anything i missed. thankyou.

Same here! I soaked the apples for at least 5 extra minutes after adding more lemon juice and baking soda in. I used a knife and was able to scrape the wax off, but it ended up bruising all of my apples. I need to find a solution that works!

When I buy organic apples at my local 'health food' store, Jimbo's, there is no wax. Against my better judgement I bought 'organic' apples at CostCo today. My thought process was...I am here and I really shouldn't buy those apples because they are packed in a ridiculous amount of plastic, but I love apples and it will save me a trip. Now I have apples that require serious clean up time at home. It would have been the same amount of time to stop in at Jimbo's:-(

This is a natural acid mixture. For those of you that found it did not work as well, do keep in mind, the more water you use (i.e. - the bigger the sink) the more diluted the mixture becomes and the less effective it will be at removing the wax. Personally I find using a simply stainless steel bowl much more sanitary. If the amount of water used is greater, you will have to increase the amount of lemon juice/baking soda mixture. This should be obvious.

Wax cannot be removed by the proposed method. Wax is not soluble in water. Waxes are soluble in non polar solvents like those used for dry cleaning which are, of course, not appropriate for human consumption.

You can just use the back of a knife and scrape the apples from the bottom to top towards you. I usually do it with the back side of the knife two timea around then go around once again with the sharp side.

Apples naturally produce wax. The natural wax has ursolic acid which has shown to help stop the growth of some cancer cells. The food grade wax used to coat apples is almost chemically the same base compounds as the apple makes itself, as it should be considering it is either shellac, carnauba, or other plant based wax. Once the natural wax is removed some of the moisture retaining abilities of the apple will degrade which leads to less storage/shelf life. To truly remove all the wax the apples will need to be soaked in a vinegar (or some other wax solvent that is safe) for an extended period of time. I would say that the above procedure is perfect for cleaning the apples, I doubt the brushing actually removes the wax, probably just shines them up like a polishing brush on a shoe.

When cooking, please make sure to follow kitchen hygiene and safety -- cook meat until internal temperature is at safe levels, always check labels for allergens, and use caution in the kitchen -- I love sharing recipes, but I am not liable for damages done as a result of trying these recipes.